Magnetized
by Akihikari
Summary: After his friends gang up on him one too many times, Gavin leaves Achievement City to make his own directionless way in the world. It is up to Michael to show him the way back, but his teammate might not want to return. Minecraftverse.
1. Waiting

_Magnetized_

oOo

**[A/N] Welp, Tumblr seemed to like my humble offering to the Mavin tag, so here's another one ^_^ Again inspired by fanart that may or may not be based on Let's Play episodes, though these don't seem to be. You can find the three drawings responsible for this fic over here:**

**fuckyeahmichaelgavin tumblr com /post /46402659018 **

**fuckyeahmichaelgavin tumblr com /post /46439814834**

**the-fag-artist tumblr com /post /47169039367**

**This one is also set in a Minecraftverse, treating them as in-game characters rather than players. Sorry most of my fics are going to end up that way, but there's just so much more scope for drama when there's killin' and monsters and hunger and health to think about n_n;**

oOo

_Gavin_

His footsteps crunched heavily against sand and dirt; against gravel and clay. He'd lost count of how many days he'd been walking like this, with nothing but a wooden sword and the occasional porkchop on him. _Does it matter, though?_ He screwed his eyes up against the rising sun, wincing involuntarily at the single cold sweatdrop trickling down his neck. _I'm not going to win this week either. That's what matters._

_It's more than that._ His eyes drifted, lazily, to the grazing cows on his left; for a moment he envied them and their simple existence, and the next moment had to choke down a sense of disgust at himself. _I'm out of this. I don't even want to win anymore._

He let his eyelids droop shut and let loose a shiver at the memory—the attack, the boisterous laughter of his friends as they hit him again and again. His own helpless cry of anger when he finally saw the world go red and felt himself re-materialize at a new, completely unfamiliar spawn point. _Of course they destroyed my bed too,_ he thought bitterly.

_Of course they ganged up on me._

_Of course they took everything I had._

_Of course they took my will to win._

_Of course,_ he thought, _I've never belonged with them._ It was with little surprise that he realized he was shaking all over; his grip on his hastily crafted wooden sword was faltering, the handle slippery with sweat and listlessness.

"_Give it up, Gavin. You know we're not going to let you win."_

"_Hand over the gold and maybe we'll leave your bed intact, motherfucker."_

He'd refused. He had already been knocked to the ground when Jack laughed those words at him; he had stared up at the faces of his friends, lying prone on the unforgiving sand, wondering if they saw the dumb, pained surprise in his eyes. He'd heard Jack offer to leave his bed untouched if he just gave them the gold, and he'd shook his head.

Ray had sighed—_impatiently? Pityingly? Amusedly?—_before raising his diamond sword and dealing the final blow.

_I only had half a heart left, Ray. You could have taken me out with a wooden hoe. You could have taken me out with your bare hands, even. _Somehow the iniquity of being finished off with such a powerful weapon stung him.

The Gavin of old would have have been flattered at the thought that they considered him powerful enough to use a diamond sword on, even when heavily outnumbered. But he was no longer the Gavin of old. _The Gavin of old would have a bow._

_Outnumbered..._ because he had nothing else to do, he hummed softly as he leaned against a birch, watching the sun make its cheerful way above the treetops. _How many of them were there? Everybody, right?_

How many heads had he counted? He couldn't remember through the pain.

"_Hand over the gold..." _Jack had been there.

Ray had very much been there.

"_Attack!"_ Geoff had been there, too.

_A laugh of pure delight. "It ends here, Gavin!"_ Caleb had been there.

"_Give it up, Gavin! You're surrounded!"_ Ryan had been there.

To his astonishment, he felt a small smile dancing on his lips, warm as the morning light. _Not everybody was there. I'm missing somebody in that list._

"I'm missing Michael", he mumbled, and in that moment, he knew he meant it in every way. _I'm missing Michael._

It was absurd, the relief he felt at this realization; this soaring gladness that crept into his heart took him completely unawares. Bewildered, he raised a shaky hand to his own mouth and ran his fingers across the curve of his dry, cracked lips, trying to confirm that he really was smiling and still unable to believe it.

_I can't believe I'm so happy that Michael wasn't there..._

_Then again, why can't I?_ He chuckled to himself. It was hard, he supposed, to let go of some of his fondest memories... No matter how he swore that he was through with this sick weekly competition for a gold tower, no matter how he wanted to get away from it all, what ultimately pulled him back was that... That scowling face; that tousled head of hair; the shouting, swearing mouth that could insult, flatter and comfort him within the same sentence...

_The other half of my team._

_Team Nice Dynamite._ He snorted. _God, what a stupid name. Why did I never realize how stupid it was?_

_Why didn't Michael join everybody else?_

_Where are you now, Michael? Do you have the tower? Is it over for this week?_

_This week..._

Then it dawned on him. _How many days has it been since I respawned? _He could have been wandering around from biome to biome for months and nobody would be able to find him. _This world... is huge._ A second shiver escaped him. _I don't know where I am and this world is huge... _

Somewhere behind him, a chicken clucked.

_I need food,_ he thought dispiritedly. _I'm done with fighting for the Tower of Pimps, but not with life... Not just yet. I need food._

_I need to get a grip on myself. I'm being..._ the smile on his face widened, but grew sadder too. _The old me would say I'm being a donut._

Where was the old Gavin Free? Still lying dead near Achievement City, stripped of his armor and all four gold blocks? Were his unseeing eyes watching one of his friends erect the Tower at their obsidian block this very instant?

He shook his head with all the strength he could muster. _I need to stop thinking. I need to go and kill some of the animals that are right in front of me, damn it. I need food._

His heart refused to move.

_That's not what I need,_ it muttered. _That's not what I've been missing. _His chest pounded with a frantic, almost plaintive beat, like a magnet straining to get to iron.

After a few minutes of struggling, Gavin decided it was right. And he knew what the iron was.

_I've been missing Michael._

_I need Michael._

His eyes swept the view before him with something akin to desperation. _Michael... I'm scared, Michael..._

"_Don't be."_

The rough, thoughtless voice floated back to him with unmistakeable clarity and he let his knees give way, sliding down to the base of the tree trunk, his sword falling beside him with a flat _thump_. "Okay", he whispered, his voice breaking mid-word. "But you have to come and find me then." The bark of the tree was rough against his back; it burned through his creeper jacket, but he welcomed the sensation. _The roughness... reminds me of Michael._

_Team Nice Dynamite. We're a team. ...We were a team. Come find me then, if you can._

_I'm going to sleep right here. _He shut his eyes firmly, almost stubbornly, and was alarmed at how grateful his body seemed. _I've been exhausted, haven't I?_ Within seconds he was fighting to stay awake, trying to finish his sentence.

"Come find me", he breathed. "Michael, I've..."

_I've been missing you..._

oOo

**[A/N] I should probably clarify here that I have nothing against the RL Geoff, Jack, Ryan, Caleb, and Ray. It may seem that way from my villainization of them in this story, but I needed antagonistic characters to work with and Minecraft doesn't really have many sentient player characters. I couldn't have Gavin mugged by villagers. :I**

**Also, who said they'll stay bad guys till the end? ;D To be continued, y'all.**


	2. Finding

_Finding_

oOo

**[A/N] Holy sheeit, the follows. O_o THANK YOU SO MUCH YOU GUISE. As a gift, here's an early update~ There's still another chapter left to go, but I thought I'd just get this bit out of the way before the real fluff (action?) begins. **

**Oh, and I deliberated for a while about whether or not I'd keep Gavin's "Mi-cool" thing in for this story, but it's kinda all serious and dark and I figured it wouldn't fit, so he just says plain old "Michael" here. v_v Sowwy~**

oOo

_Michael_

_There's got to be something wrong with me,_ Michael declared to himself.

There was something wrong with the way he moved now, the way he spoke. The way he fought. He no longer even held his sword the same way after Gavin's disappearance; his grip, previously loose and flexible to complement the taut melody of his archer teammate's fighting style, had now changed to something hard-edged and grim. He clutched the hilt as though his life depended on the fight, because now it did.

There was something wrong with his thoughts if they kept straying back to one sandy-haired Brit. _Straying back? Am I fucking kidding myself?_ They'd been stuck on Gavin ever since he'd heard from his friends that the archer had vanished into oblivion. _They can't be straying if they never left the idiot in the first place._

_Gavin, what the fuck?_

Two weeks since he'd last seen Gavin... They'd passed in a noisy blur, every single minute of them.

There was something wrong with him if he was now out in a jungle he'd never seen, exploring a world bigger than his wildest imaginings, frantically seeking out—_fucking seeking out—_every creeper he saw in the hope that he'd find not a monster but his teammate. His friend. He'd been out in the unknown reaches of this world for days, ignoring the week's task completely, unable to think of anything but finding the person who had been occupying everything he thought and said and did until Michael thought he would go insane.

The fucking _trees_ around him seemed to whisper Gavin's name.

_It's like without even realizing it, my entire being's been realigned... redesigned to sense and know and react to nothing but him. The thought that he's out here somewhere is fucking pulling me in. I've been fucking magnetized._

And there was definitely something wrong with him if, from an impossibly long distance away, he could hear the faint mumble of his own name in the voice he'd been seeking for so long. If he could turn blindly among the trees and head in a new direction because he suddenly _knew_ that in that direction lay Gavin Free.

_I know you're there. It's more than knowing. I can sense it._ This new-found certainty was hiding in his very heartbeat. Reeling him towards what he so desperately wanted to find. _I couldn't fight this feeling even if I tried, and... I'm not really trying, am I?_

_Magnetized._

If time had been nothing but a hazy rush before, now it suddenly seemed too slow, too viscous; his legs felt heavy with tension, his shoulders fighting to droop. Everything felt hot and heavy as he slashed wildly at the dense shrubbery before him in order to move faster. Every bit of him was tingling with the need to get there; with the single thought that had defined him for days now: _I have to find Gavin._

"Gavin", he found himself saying, over and over. "Gavin..." Quietly at first, almost meditatively, then with increasing volume and pitch until he was screaming as though his life depending on it, tearing through the jungle, hacking down leaves and mobs alike. _"Gavin!" _His throat would be hoarse soon, but he was beyond caring. "GAVIN!"

_What if he's unconscious? What if he can't hear, let alone respond?_

"Don't say that", he muttered to himself, alarmed at the way his blurring vision matched the prickling in his eyes. _Oh great, now I'm fucking crying? _

_If I have the time to cry, I can use it to look for him instead!_

Breathing heavily, he dragged a sleeve across his eyes to brush away the tears that had just spilled over. His vision had not quite returned when he reached a clearing in the trees, and he was running too fast to stop himself from tripping over the pair of legs that stretched out from behind a tall birch.

A dull _thud_ rang through the jungle as he went crashing to the ground.

_Fuck..._

He scrambled to his feet as fast as he could, cursing fluently, and was just about to start running again when it struck him. _Wait..._

_What did I trip on again?_

Slowly, his heart crashing against his ribcage, Michael turned around.

Gavin was propped up against the trunk of the tree. His head had fallen onto one bony shoulder and his eyes were shut tight, features unsoftened even by sleep; he looked frail and battered and defeated, but Michael had heard him say his name, and he could see the rise and fall of the young man's chest in the mid-morning sun and he knew he was alive.

_Well, of course he's alive... He'd have respawned if he were dead, right?_ He took a cautious step forward, deliberating whether or not to wake Gavin up. _But what happens if you die and lose the will to keep on living? Do you still respawn?_

_How does respawning work, anyway? _

The questions buzzed around his head like insects as he approached the sleeping figure of his friend, one hesitant inch at a time. After all this time searching for Gavin, now that he'd found him—now that his magnetized soul was so weak with relief—he no longer knew what to do.

_Why have you been wandering around? Why didn't you come back?_

_What happened to you?_

Every crunch of his feet against the grass seemed loud enough to wake an army.

It felt like hours, but he was finally standing right in front of Gavin, casting a shadow on the tight-held face... now kneeling down before him and leaning closer. He no longer felt so lost; something in him had woken, something fiery and clear-headed, and it was giving orders that were too compelling to disobey.

Michael raised a hand, very aware of how it was trembling, and placed it on the side of Gavin's face. With Gavin's sweat and stubborn life-beat throbbing beneath his palm, reassuring him, he shut his own eyes and whispered his friend's name.

_Gavin... _

He felt, rather than saw, the dazed brown eyes open. He felt the lips move faintly, then murmur, "Michael?"

The relief hit him with the force of obsidian; he flung out an arm to keep himself from falling over, forcing his eyes wide open. "Gavin", he gasped, "Gavin, you're awake—you're—" _You're here._

_I've found you, __I've..._

"You found me", Gavin was saying, his voice fragile. An equally fragile smile was on his lips. Michael looked at the smile with a dazed eye and tried to return it, but could not. He felt dizzy, unrooted. His heart was beating out a rhythm that, in its unadulterated joy, felt almost like song; he could feel the blood racing in his veins, feel the color rising to his face. Immobile, helpless, deliriously happy, he shut his eyes again and let the tears fall.

oOo

**[A/N] Also, uhh... Not to sound needy or anything, but... I'm a big fan of reviews... ^/^ If you have any feedback you'd like to give me, don't hesitate because I'll love you for it~**


	3. Understanding

_Understanding_

oOo

A pair of arms tightened around him, pulling him down till he tumbled into Gavin completely, his chin resting on his teammate's shoulder. He clutched back; it was all he could do. _It's just as well,_ a tiny voice in his head chipped in over the clamor of his thoughts.

_It's just as well that he doesn't see me cry._

_Why am I crying?_

_Why am I happy enough to cry?_ His heart asked plaintively, while his shoulders continued to shake and he felt the jacket beneath his chin grow steadily more moist. He knew he must be white-knuckled from gripping the creeper-patterned fabric so tightly, but could not bring himself to care.

_I don't care about anything because Gavin._

Gavin was all the reason he would need for anything.

Before he could process wonder or horror or even surprise at himself, the familiar voice sailed into his thoughts, stumbling and unsure like the warm hands that rested on his back.

"Michael..."

It sounded like a question. "Yeah?" Michael said numbly, willing his voice to remain steady and not give away the redness of his eyes.

Gavin shifted ever so slightly in their shared embrace and when he spoke again, his breath swirled hotly on the back of the redhead's neck.

"Why'd you come after me, Michael?"

_Why?_

_Why, you ask...?_

_I don't think you understand..._

"I don't know", he said at last, opening his eyes. _This fuck chooses the worst of times to ask awkward questions_. "How's your health looking?"

"Not that low, funnily enough", Gavin replied; he sounded curiously reluctant. "My hunger is a different story though."

"How different?" _I should have known. I should have known this asshole wouldn't even try to keep himself alive._

Was it anger that plucked at his heart?

The blond chuckled softly—sheepishly too, Michael thought—as a cow mooed somewhere off to the side. Without speaking, without thinking about it too much lest he lose all will to move, Michael tore himself from Gavin's arms and got to his feet. He tried not to see his friend's expression of weary curiosity.

"Where are you going, Michael?"

"Just don't move from there or I will fucking end you."

_You really don't understand._

Gray-green eyes trailed after him as he made his way over to the cows, the forest grass just slightly springy under his feet. _He couldn't have chosen a better place to crash, all things considering. _

_Thwack. Thwack._

Two cows fell at his feet and he sheathed his sword with a sigh. _Animal orgy at three o'clock, plenty of trees for when it's sunny, and an ocean biome right over there. This is..._

"Lunch time, Gavin", he said grimly, setting down his furnace.

_Under different circumstances, this is the kind of place I'd have liked to settle down in... if it weren't for... well, if it weren't for the Tower of Pimps._

_Why do we even want it so much?_

Michael tossed the three steaks into the furnace, his fingertips blackened with coal, very aware of Gavin's eyes on his back. He wanted the idiot to stop looking at him. And yet, at the same time, he wanted Gavin to look at him forever.

_It's because I can't let him out of my sight for a minute without him getting into some sort of trouble,_ he told himself.

The next moment, he snorted. _I can't be honest with him just yet, but the least I can do with stop lying to myself._

_Why did I come after him, really? He doesn't understand, but do I?_

He never thought to wipe his tear-stained face, and Gavin did not remind him.

oOo

_Of course..._

The steak was unseasoned and slightly charred, but for one brief moment—before he snapped at himself to stop being so idiotic, _so fucking sappy_—Michael knew that it was the best meal he had ever eaten. With his back against an oak tree, the sun falling like rain all around him and a soft breeze against his face... _With no contest to think of, no Tower to win..._ he had never felt so peaceful after worrying for so long.

"You're an idiot", he said without any real heat through a mouthful of beef. "There are animals fucking everywhere here. You could at least have kept your hunger levels going—what if you'd starved to death?"

Gavin shrugged in a listless manner than Michael decided didn't suit him. "Well, now I know I couldn't have starved anyway—Geoff's kept the world on easy mode."

"No he hasn't", said Michael slowly. "What would give you that idea?"

"You're here, aren't you? Which means there's no contest going on right now. No reason to live in hard mode."

Michael gazed at his half-eaten steak, unwilling to look the other man in the eye. "...The world is on hard mode, stupid. The others are competing right now. They're probably almost done, for that matter."

_It's a wonder you survived at all._

There was a long, heavily pregnant pause in which the two men stared determinedly at anything but each other. Close by, the water of the ocean biome rippled in the breeze.

Gavin broke the silence with a low cough. "Was this week's contest that hard?"

"I wouldn't know." Michael's voice was toneless. "I didn't stick around for long enough. Geoff was only getting started on explaining it when I took off."

_I wasn't exactly thinking about the Tower when you were out here, alone and possibly hurt._

_I came after you because I've been magnetized._

_There was no good or bad about it, no right or wrong. I couldn't have done anything else._

Gavin was silent for so long that Michael had to look his way at last; he saw the golden head bowed down, the half-lidded eyes apparently fixed on his knees. "What's wrong?" he asked sharply. "Do you need more food?" His teammate's steak was long gone; he'd practically swallowed it whole. _Don't fucking pass out on me now, you moron, you—_

"I'm fine", Gavin murmured. "Just, well. I owe you an apology."

_You don't understand, Gavin._

"An apology for what?"

A patient sigh. "Everything, I suppose. For disappearing from Achievement City. For letting those tossers get me in the first place. For not taking care of myself. For letting my hunger drop like that. For—for making you give up the chance to get the Tower—"

_No... you don't understand at all._

"Shut up."

"Huh?"

"I said", Michael ground out, "Shut up. Shut the fuck up." Something in his veins was on fire. _Anger?_

_I came after you, Gavin, because I needed to._

_We're both so selfish..._

Impatiently throwing his unfinished steak to the ground, he shuffled forward on his knees to where Gavin sat, still looking dejectedly at the grass. He felt his hands rise, rise like he had no control over them at all, rise like they were being pulled, until they were wrapped around the younger man's wrists. They held Gavin's hands in place against the oak as he leaned in, seething.

"You are an ass", he said levelly.

Gavin seemed either unwilling or incapable of resisting, but his eyes were wide. "Michael?" _God fucking dammit, when he's off-balance that stupid accent of his gets thicker. He sounds like he's saying "Mi-cool". He can't say my fucking name straight._

_He doesn't understand shit._

"Shut up", Michael said again, "and listen to me."

He leaned a little closer.

"I came looking for you because I had no idea where you were. I didn't know if you were alive, I didn't know how many times you'd died since they killed you, I didn't know where you would fucking respawn. I didn't know jack shit and it was killing me."

The murky green of Gavin's eyes seemed to darken with an emotion that Michael could not see.

"I came looking for you because after three weeks of wondering where you were, there was nothing else I could do."

Gavin opened his mouth as though to say something, but closed it soundlessly.

"I came looking for you, you inconsiderate prick, because you called me. I don't know how but you fucking did and I had no choice but to obey or fucking lose my mind."

His hands had tightened around the other man's wrists without his realizing; he could feel a second heartbeat spilling into his palm. Trembling with a rage that he had not known he was feeling, he lowered his face to Gavin's until they were almost nose to nose.

"I came looking for you because I needed to. I'm not a saint, you moron, and I never will be. Stop making me the hero—I've been wandering around for days myself, scared out of my fucking mind, not knowing what the others must be thinking now that I'm gone—and stop looking at me like that!" He was almost spitting the words out now.

He closed his eyes and wondered if he had lost his mind after all.

"I need you to understand that I did none of this for _you",_ he whispered, his own breath curling back to him from Gavin's shock-limp face. "I need you to understand that I need you."

_I've been magnetized, Gavin, and you don't understand..._

But it was Gavin who closed the space between them. Gavin who tilted his face up till their lips touched; Gavin who laughed softly into Michael's mouth when he felt the redhead stiffen in surprise.

_You don't unders—_

The world dissolved.

And when Michael pulled away at last, their foreheads still pressed together, their breaths dancing together in the late afternoon sun, it was Gavin who asked, "Is this what you want me to understand, Michael?"

_God. Fucking. Dammit._

_It is. I don't know how or why but this is it. I've been magnetized and I can't—_

He nodded miserably.

The younger man's hands slipped out of their now limp restraints as the blond lowered his eyes again, then shut them altogether. "If that's all I need to understand", Gavin mumbled, throwing his arms around Michael again, "I think I already do."

oOo

**I implied that this would be a three-parter. ...I lied. :B I'm thinking two more chapters for now, though I guess in the end it won't be over till it's over. (To think that I originally intended this to be a one-shot. Hardy har har.)**

**(I'm not sure how well this chapter is written; I've been away for quite some time and my style might be a little off. If there's anything you'd like me to fix—or commend me for, eheh ;w;—you can always leave a review~)**


	4. Dreaming

_Dreaming_

oOo

"We could make it, you know", Gavin said quietly over the evening shadows and steady, comforting light of Michael's furnace. The redhead looked at him with some curiosity. "Make what?"

A large hand waved vaguely in the air, trying to lend some form to his words. "You know... Just the two of us. We could make a life for ourselves out here. We're good fighters, and not half bad at building either—I thought—you know, if you wanted—"

"Let me just stop you right there." Michael held up a hand of his own with a sigh. "You're suggesting we just settle the fuck down out here. And never go back."

"Well, yeah", said Gavin, his voice equal parts defiance and apprehension. "Are you saying that it's never crossed your mind at all?"

_It has. God dammit, it has. It's been on my mind all day, but..._ "That's not how it works, you know. We gotta go back some time."

The younger man looked away, a faint scowl beginning to crease his forehead, and Michael was again visited by that blind, helpless anger at whatever had conspired to change Gavin so... _Anger at my friends. At _our_ friends—they do care for him, I know, despite everything. The problem is going to be convincing him of the fact._

_He has every reason not to believe me..._

"Gavin", he said, voice gentler than usual, every syllable a lie. "If it comes down to it, I'm gonna have to leave you behind."

Telling himself that he could not see the loud, astonished pain in the blond's eyes, he continued, "I have duties towards our band of friends and, unlike you, no reason to just fucking disappear. They don't even know where I am right now. I didn't tell anyone before taking off to search for you, and heaven knows how many days have passed since the competition began..."

_I can't do this..._

"They need us—they need me. I'm the best swordfighter of the group and nobody comes close to beating you at archery; we used to take down most of the monsters when exploring, and with both of us gone, the only one even remotely capable of holding other mobs down is Ray... And he has other duties, since he's better at mining..."

_Fuck, I can't do this at all._

"I can't just desert them; our lives together aren't just about competing for a fucking gold tower..."

"Are you really going to leave me if I don't come with you, Michael?" Gavin asked faintly, cutting in. Michael gave the blond his best glare before saying, "Y-yeah, that's what I've been telling you! It's not something I want to do, but I'll have to, dammit." He could not quite bring himself to meet Gavin's eyes.

_I could follow you to the far lands if you wanted._

A hand closed around his wrist, warm and dry like the saplings that fell from the trees overhead every now and then. "Then won't you stay with me for a while before you go? For just a few days?"

Michael's heart skipped a beat, then froze.

_You're not going to protest at all?_

_Gavin... what is wrong with you?_

"Yeah", he heard himself croak, as though from a great distance away. "Yeah, I'll stay with you. For a couple of days or so. But then I'll need to go back."

_Find something to do. Something to say to him, something more—this isn't working—_

_Because if he doesn't go back, I really will stay with him forever._

"Thank you, Michael", said the voice that was so different from the one he had come to expect after a lifetime by Gavin's side. _I'm never leaving you. Why can't you see that?_ He raised a shaky hand to the younger man's face, trying to find an answer in his eyes, but all he saw was his own dumbstruck face reflected back at him.

"Let's make the best of these few days, then, shall we?" he managed to force out of his tightening throat before giving in to the ache in his chest and slamming their lips together.

_I'll never leave your side._

_I've been magnetized and it's your fault, you inconsiderate bastard... Why can't you fucking see?_

Gavin laughed mirthlessly against Michael's reddening neck. "Yeah, let's."

oOo

Michael would discover the full extent of his relentless attraction that night, when desire began to pool thick and fast in the pit of his stomach and he could not find it in himself to curse the relief he felt as he saw that Gavin did feel the same way after all; clothes were discarded with a never-before felt impatience and bodies slid against each other, their rhythm punctuated only by the nearby clucking of chickens and their own strangled cries in the darkness.

_Magnetized indeed..._

Not one monster came their way, not even after the last embers in the furnace had long faded to black and the moon was their only guide. They did not think to use torches, and indeed did not need them, not when they could still see each other and their ecstasy-filled faces in the half-light... Not when the world had ceased to exist outside their connected bodies; the grass was but the brush of a raincloud, the rustling of the trees overhead little more than an inaudible murmur.

_I'm never leaving you again._

Blond locks, longish and untamed after so many weeks of neglect, tangled with fiery red curls as Michael dipped his head for kiss after burning kiss, thrust after deliriouly exquisite thrust.

_I'll find a way to take you back with me..._

Hands tangled in sweat-damp hair; breathless moans of "Michael", whispers of "Gavin", and the liquid pleasure they felt below.

_And if I don't, I'm not going back either._

The hoarse, wordless cry of two men reaching their violent peak rang clear and regretless through the forest. If they found the area devoid of any wildlife for most of the next day, they would never realize why.

_Magnetized... I'm bound to you._

He could never tell just when he fell asleep after collapsing atop Gavin in a sweaty heap of bone and muscle, his heartbeat still rushing beneath his skin, pulsing in his veins like the purest, most single-minded devotion. As he drifted off, however, he thought he heard a well-loved voice ask softly, "Are you really going to leave me?"

It was a dream, he was sure of it, as he mumbled, "Never."

oOo

The sun beat down on the men as they ate a quiet breakfast of eggs and porkchops, an aura of equal embarrassment and comfort surrounding them, each lost in their own thoughts but safe in the assumption that their thoughts had everything to do with the other.

The older man waited for Gavin to say something, chafing in the sudden stillness, but no words came. _Why isn't he talking..._

"Gavin", Michael dared to say at last. It was the first thing he'd said all morning, and he reddened somewhat under Gavin's inquiring gaze. _I don't actually have anything to say, I just hate this silence..._

"Sorry I've been quiet", the blond said, uncannily apropos. "But I've been thinking about stuff, and I gotta ask you... Why'd you lie to me?"

"What do you mean?" Michael asked swiftly. _He can't know...?_

"You're not going to leave me", said Gavin, his eyes on his food now. "You never meant that and we both know it. I knew it from the start, I just... I suppose I let myself believe..."

When Michael found words again, his voice sounded feeble to his own ears, almost trembling. "I did mean it though, I—"

"Why'd you lie, Michael?" Gavin asked again, and his face betrayed nothing.

"God dammit—because I thought I could force you to come back with me, you fuck!" the temper that he had managed to stow away for a while was now back in full force, burning in his chest. "Just fucking _look_ at yourself! You were wasting the fuck away like a baby when I found you—you wouldn't last a week in this place without me to take care of you, not when Geoff keeps the world on hard mode and there are creepers fucking everywhere—do you honestly think I'd let you stay here on your own?!"

"No", said Gavin. "Which is why I'm wondering what made you say you would."

Without warning, Michael found himself on his back as the younger man straddled him, looking down into his livid face with that new expression he'd picked up over the time they'd been apart—that look of calm, disturbingly intelligent curiosity.

_You've changed a lot, Gavin._

"You didn't think of how I'd feel when you said you'd leave, did you?"

The retort on the tip of Michael's tongue died.

"Thought not", Gavin breathed. "You were too focused on getting me back in the first place. And you know what—if I were anything like the Gavin you knew, it would have worked. I'd have followed you back like a wolf. But I'm not that Gavin any more, Michael. That man died while fighting for the Tower of Pimps weeks ago."

_I can see that now,_ Michael thought dazedly through his flush of mortification. _I can see that more clearly than ever._

"What would the new Gavin want me to say, then?" he asked petulantly. "What can I do to convince you that I need you to come back with me?"

_Do you still not understand just how completely I've been aligned to the very beating of your goddamn heart? What else can I even do now?_

"Just say that much. Exactly that much, and I'll understand, I promise." Lips brushed briefly against his ear and whispered, "Say 'Gavin, I need you to come back with me'."

_You're still such a prick._

"Gavin", Michael whispered back, "I need you to come back with me."

_But I need you. If you still can't understand that, I..._

"Okay."

The air stopped moving. "What?" Michael asked blankly. _Did you just—what—?_

"I'll come back with you. And you'll learn to live with the new Gavin, just like everybody else will." The kiss took him unawares, as did the hand sliding beneath his shirt; before he could emit a word in response or protest, Gavin said, "I've changed, as you can see, so you'll have to change accordingly if you want me back. But you know, Michael, despite everything..."

"What?" the redhead asked again, welcoming the climbing pace of his heartbeat, almost dizzy with relief against the grass.

"You're not the only one who's been magnetized."

oOo

**My headcanon is that when the guys aren't competing for the Tower in Minecraftverse, they divide certain tasks among themselves based on their abilities in the Let's Plays—Michael and Gavin fight off the monsters; Geoff and Ryan do most of the mining; Joel and Caleb explore new places and scout out villages/temples to plunder; Jack handles building and farming with occasional help from the others; and Ray (being good at everything) fills in for everyone when they're otherwise engaged, but prefers to fight when he can.**

**Also, just one chapter to go and I can cross this off my ever-growing list of incomplete fics -_-;**


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